Nice Weather We're Having

After two weeks of cold weather, Mother Nature finally gave us a break. The leaves were at their peak, the temperature was around seventy-five degrees, and the day was dry and pleasant. It was, in short, the perfect fall day. Having spent my morning reading and grading papers, I was ready to leave the house and spend a few hours outside. Fortunately, I had an excuse to do so; I had tickets to one of the season's final football games. Irrational as it may seem, the prospect of sacrificing three hours initially caused me to experience some pangs of guilt. I actually considered forfeiting the tickets to stay home and work. In the end, however, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend time outside. To assuage my guilt, I brought a camera with me and documented the experience for my blog. The afternoon, depicted below in the form of a photo-journal, therefore represented a "field trip" of sorts, one that allowed me to complete some work while spending time outside.

To begin the afternoon, we visited The Four Kegs, a popular pre-game haunt located off campus. Sitting on the patio, we spent our time talking (a rarity given our busy lives) over a cold beer. Cliché as it may seem, the weather was a frequent topic of conversation. It was hard to believe we were able to sit outdoors so comfortably in the first week of November. Though we have lived in Ohio for more than a year now, neither of us has grown accostomed to its long gray winters. I suspect that, on some level, knowing what awaited us only made the day all the more enjoyable.

After leaving The Four Kegs we made our way across campus to the stadium, which apparently qualifies as a modern day din of iniquity. In recent weeks the Religious Right has seemed to make its presence increasingly known at football games. This afternoon, for example, we encountered several individuals along the way who were distributing leaflets that advertised an upcoming religious gathering. Their efforts toward salvation were outdone, however, by an individual who used her afternoon to inform the rest of us that we were destined to spend eternity burning in the fires of Hell. I was curious to know whether Hell had access to college football games, but she was engaged in a fairly heated conversation with another gentleman, and I wasn't able to ask. Leaving to enter the stadium, I could only hope that the Rapture wouldn't take place until the game had ended.

Once inside the stadium we made our way to our seats, which actually aren't that bad. The stadium wasn't as energized as usual, a result, I suppose, of our having learned that we were destined to burn in Hell. Fortunately, when the marching band performed "Script Ohio," our spirits were buoyed.

Though we did win, the game wasn't as exciting as we might have hoped. Our opponent, Illinois, has struggled this season, and this continued to be the case this afternoon. The final score of the game was 40-2. Though the game started at 3:30 in the afternoon, it was dark by the third quarter, a result of the recent change in day light savings time. After the game we returned to our bikes and made the ride back home. Though I have work to catch up on tonight, the afternoon spent at the game was well worth it. If nothing else, it was nice to have the opportunity to take my mind off school and spend time with my wife, something I hadn't done for the past two weeks. It's unfortunate that such opportunities don't present themselves more readily. As I've learned, however, this is a part of life in graduate school.